Denver's Champ Bailey finally gets his Super Bowl chance

Broncos cornerback Champ Bailey, a 12-time Pro Bowler, will be making his first appearance in a Super Bowl after playing for 15 seasons.

The Associated Press

ENGLEWOOD, Colo. - Champ Bailey is old school. Sharp, shrewd, subtle.

A decade younger, Richard Sherman is just as clever and calculating as his 35-year-old counterpart in Denver, devouring clues from endless hours on the football field and in the film room to dupe quarterbacks on game day.

What sets Seattle's superstar cornerback apart is that he's bigger and brasher than Bailey. He talks a big game and he backs it up.

Bailey, almost bashful by comparison, is a big fan.

"He's a good player, a good player," Bailey said. "I've noticed myself watching him a lot more this year. As guys start to emerge you start paying more attention. He's a good player; he does a lot of good things on the field. Every week he's making a play to change the game."

Bailey also has no issue whatsoever with Sherman's swagger that was all the rage after his postgame rant moments after making the game-saving play in the NFC Championship Game that sent the Seahawks into the Super Bowl against Bailey's Broncos.

"We're all different personalities," Bailey said. "I don't have a problem with his personality. For one, if you don't want somebody to talk, you have to give them a reason not to, that's it. He's probably going to talk anyway but at the same time he is what he is. I like his game."

Bailey is ready for the inevitable comparisons during Super Bowl week with Sherman, who stands 3 inches taller, weighs six pounds more and is many times more loquacious.

So be it, said Bailey, who isn't about to complain about anything, not even the wintry weather in the New York this week.

He's been waiting for this moment for a lifetime.

This time of year, Bailey usually is savoring the sun, surf and sand in Hawaii. A 12-time Pro Bowler, he's the most decorated defensive back in NFL history.

It's taken him 15 seasons to get to his first Super Bowl, and this has been the most trying season of all, one in which he missed 11 games and parts of two others because of a nagging right foot sprain.

Bailey's season of fits and starts left him playing in a reserve role down the stretch but when Chris Harris Jr. blew out a knee against San Diego in the divisional round, Bailey returned to his spot at left cornerback.

Playing opposite Dominique Rodgers-Cromartie a week ago, he had a superb, though typically under-the-radar, game against Tom Brady in the AFC Championship Game, collecting three tackles while shutting off his side of the field.

"I had to let my body heal," Bailey said. "I had to let things get right before I could go out. I'm just glad that I'm back out there participating."

Bailey's contemporaries past and present are pulling for him to raise the Lombardi Trophy a week from today.

"That would be a picturesque moment if that happens," said former teammate and former Eagle Brian Dawkins, who visited the Broncos at practice Friday. "I don't know how he would react. I know how I'm going to react if that does happens for them, especially for him. Tears of joy."

Several of Bailey's teammates say they want a Super Bowl victory to serve as the capstone to Bailey's career.

Bailey appreciates the sentiment, but he's shying away from such chatter.

"That's great," he said. "I love the respect and everything my teammates give me, but it's not about me. It's definitely about this organization."